Harrogate Railway drop points after failing to 'kill off' Armthorpe Welfare
Harrogate Railway manager Fraser Lancaster was left “frustrated” by his side’s failure to kill Armthorpe Welfare off in the second half of Saturday’s 2-2 NCEL Division One draw.
The Starbeck club were outplayed during the opening period and went into the break trailing to Mohammed Kaba’s 23rd-minute strike.
Goals after the interval from Eliel Maville-Anku and substitute Lucas Umpleby saw Rail turn the game on its head, but they missed a number of good chances to go 3-1 up and were eventually pegged back by Mahamadou Ceesay’s late leveller.
“We weren’t at it at all in the first half. We looked disjointed, we just weren’t good at all,” Lancaster said.
"Armthorpe played us off the pitch, to be honest. Second half, we made a couple of changes, tried to change the mentality and get balls into the box.
"We seemed to have more intensity and work-rate, which got us back in the game. From 1-0 down we got ourselves ahead, but from 2-1 up we have got to be seeing games out.
"We can’t be putting that much effort into getting back into a game and taking the lead and not see it out. We’ve got to kill it off, we had three really good chances to get that third goal, which we didn’t take, and that’s the frustrating part.
"A point is better than nothing, but we really wanted to win that game and we’ve let Armthorpe back in it.”
A point at Armthorpe leaves Railway 13th in the table heading into this weekend’s FA Vase showdown with Whitley Bay, 3pm kick-off at Station View.